Disco Casting
November 5, 2019
Arseny Vesnin
DISCO is a short film from South African casting agency, DISCO , showcasing in a superb way, what’s happening in the strange and wonderful world of casting direction…
In casting, our world is a theatre of the unseen. We live behind the curtain. This is a celebration of the casting arena in all of its intimate awkwardness, secrecy and flashes of flamboyance, where we delight in the unruliness of human beings.
As casting directors we present a fantasy version of how a story can be told. For the film, we stepped into that fantasy by reimagining and reenacting the jobs we’ve been asked to cast on. We dreamt up the roles these characters would go on to play in our ideal world. It was about casting ourselves as the audience, letting go and learning about who we are. The films show us how we see the world.
Good casting direction is presenting the unexpected and making it work. A lot of the magic of our trade is conjured by happy accidents, surprises and mischief. The imperfections, the intimate off-screen moments before and between a session, the mistakes and blemishes – these are the things that enliven our work.
DISCO